Monday, September 14, 2015

Jordan: We Do Not Want Palestinians

"Improve the living
conditions of the Palestinian refugees. Allow them to settle down. Give
them citizenship so that they can live as human beings." — Dr. Ahmad Abu
Matar, an Oslo-based Palestinian academic, blasting Arab the world for
its continued mistreatment of Palestinians.

The Arabs do not care about the Palestinians and want them to
remain Israel's problem. Countries such as Lebanon and Syria would
rather see Palestinians living as "animals in the jungle" than grant
them basic rights such as employment, education and citizenship.

It is no surprise that refugees fleeing Syria have no ambitions
to settle in any Arab country. They know that their fate in the Arab
world will be no better than that of Palestinians living in Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon and other Arab countries.

A recent decision by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to cut back its services has left Jordan and
other Arab countries extremely worried about the possibility that they
may be forced to grant citizenship rights to millions of Palestinians.
During the last few weeks, many Jordanians have expressed deep
concern that the UNRWA measures may be part of a "conspiracy" to force
the kingdom to resettle Palestinian refugees.
According to UNRWA figures,
more than two million registered Palestinian refugees live in Jordan.
Most of the refugees, but not all, have full (Jordanian) citizenship,
the figures show. The refugees live in 10 UNRWA-recognized camps in
Jordan.

The "Cyber City" refugee camp in Jordan, where a number of Palestinians are being housed. (Image source: ICRC)

Jordan is the only Arab country that has granted citizenship to
Palestinians. Still, many Jordanians see their presence in the kingdom
as temporary.
Although there is no official census data for how many inhabitants
are Palestinian, they are estimated to constitute half of Jordan's
population, which is estimated at seven million. Some claim that the
Palestinians actually make up two-thirds of the kingdom's population.
Over the past few decades, the Jordanians' biggest nightmare has been the talk about resettling the Palestinians
in the kingdom by turning them into permanent citizens. The talk about
turning Jordan into a Palestinian state has also created panic and anger
among Jordanians.
Jordan's "demographic problem" resurfaced last week when a senior
Jordanian politician warned against plans to resettle Palestinian
refugees in the kingdom.
Taher al-Masri, a former Jordanian prime minister who is closely
associated with the ruling Hashemite monarchy, sounded the alarm in an
interview with a Turkish news agency.
Commenting on UNRWA's severe financial crisis, which has resulted in
cutting back services to Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, al-Masri said:
"I believe this is part of a plan to turn the issue of the Palestinian
refugees into an internal problem of Jordan. UNRWA is paving the way for
liquidating the Palestinian cause."
Al-Masri, whose views often reflect those of the monarchy, expressed
fear that the UNRWA cutbacks would prompt the world to consider the idea
of turning the Palestinians in Jordan into permanent citizens,
especially as most of them already carry Jordanian passports.
Al-Masri and other Jordanian officials maintain that Jordan is
entitled to protect its "national identity" by refusing to absorb
non-Jordanians.
Earlier this week, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour raised many eyebrows when he announced
that there were more than two million Palestinians living in Jordan who
are not permanent citizens. Ensour was apparently referring to those
Palestinians who carry temporary Jordanian passports.
Jordanian and Palestinian political analysts described Ensour's
comments about the Palestinians in Jordan as "fuzzy" and
"controversial." They noted that Ensour mentioned the Palestinians
together with Iraqi and Syrian refugees who have found shelter in the
kingdom in recent years, and that therefore the Jordanians consider the
Palestinians' presence in their country only temporary.
"The remarks of the prime minister are ambiguous, controversial and very worrying," commented
Bassam al-Badareen, a widely respected journalist in Amman. "He
referred to the Palestinians as being part of the foreigners and Iraqi
refugees in Jordan."
Ensour's remarks, like those of al-Masri, are further proof that
Jordan and the rest of the Arab world are not interested in helping
solve the problem of the Palestinian refugees. Jordan, Lebanon and Syria
-- the three Arab countries where most of the refugees are living --
are strongly opposed to any solution that would see Palestinians
resettled within their borders.
That is why these countries and most of the Arab world continue to discriminate against the Palestinians and subject them to Apartheid laws
and regulations. Although Jordan has granted citizenship to many
Palestinians, it nevertheless continues to treat them as second-class
citizens.
In the past few years, the Jordanian authorities have been revoking the citizenship of Palestinians in a move that has been denounced as "unjust" and "unconstitutional."
The Arab countries have consistently justified their discriminatory
policies against the Palestinians by arguing that this is the only way
to ensure that the refugees will one day return to their former homes
inside Israel. According to this logic, the Arab countries do not want
to give the Palestinians citizenship or even basic rights, to avoid a
situation where Israel and the international community would use this as
an excuse to deny them the "right of return."
But some Palestinians reject this argument and accuse the Arab countries of turning their backs on their Palestinian brothers.
Dr. Ahmad Abu Matar, a Palestinian academic based in Oslo, blasted
the Arab world for its continued mistreatment of Palestinians.
"All the Arab countries are opposed to resettlement and
naturalization of Palestinians not because they care about the
Palestinian cause, but due to internal and regional considerations," Abu
Matar wrote.
"We need to have the courage to say that improving the living
conditions of Palestinian refugees in the Arab countries, including
granting them citizenship, does not scrap the right of return."
Noting that Palestinians have long been deprived of their civil
rights in the Arab world, particularly in Lebanon, where they are banned
from working in many professions and live in camps that do not even
suit "animals in the jungle," Abu Matar pointed out that the U.S .and
Europe have opened their borders to Palestinians and even given them
citizenship.
Addressing the Arab countries, the academic wrote: "Improve the
living conditions of the Palestinian refugees. Allow them to settle
down. Give them citizenship so that they can live as human beings."
But Abu Matar's appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears in the Arab
world. The Arabs do not care about the Palestinians and want them to
remain Israel's problem. Countries such as Lebanon and Syria would
rather see Palestinians living as "animals in the jungle" than grant
them basic rights such as employment, education and citizenship.
It is no surprise that refugees fleeing Syria have no ambitions to
settle in any Arab country. They know that their fate in the Arab world
will be no better than that of the Palestinians living in Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon and other Arab countries.

This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.